Air suspensions utilize air springs to provide desired output characteristics, such as ride comfort and vehicle performance for example. One known active air suspension uses an air spring assembly that includes a primary airbag mounted around a piston airbag such that the piston airbag provides a rolling surface for the primary airbag. A change in piston airbag volume changes an effective piston area of the primary airbag. A relatively small change in the effective piston area provides a change in a spring rate of the air spring assembly. The pressures in the piston airbag and the primary airbag are selectively controlled to provide infinite variation in spring rates without requiring any auxiliary tanks and associated actuators. The smaller volume of the piston airbag relative to the larger volume of the primary airbag permits rapid pressure and volume changes to enable active suspension control.
This adjustable piston configuration also changes the load of the air spring assembly via the adjustment in effective piston area. When a vehicle is driving off-road or is subjected to poor road conditions, roll stiffness should be minimized to improve articulation. With a traditional air spring assembly having a single bag configuration, roll stiffness could be minimized by cross-linking the air springs; however, large diameter hoses are needed to move the large air volume between the air springs. This is disadvantageous from a packaging and cost perspective.